View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Simon Fraser University Institutional Repository Social Media? Get serious! Understanding the functional building blocks of social media Jan H. Kietzmann, Kristopher Hermkens, Ian P. McCarthy, Bruno S. Silvestre final version published in Business Horizons (2011) v. 54 pp. 241-251. doi: 10.106/j.bushor.2011.01.005 Abstract Traditionally, consumers used the Internet to simply expend content: they read it, they watched it, and they used it to buy products and services. Increasingly, however, consumers are utilizing platforms–—such as content sharing sites, blogs, social networking, and wikis–—to create, modify, share, and discuss Internet content. This represents the social media phenomenon, which can now significantly impact a firm’s reputation, sales, and even survival. Yet, many executives eschew or ignore this form of media because they don’t understand what it is, the various forms it can take, and how to engage with it and learn. In response, we present a framework that defines social media by using seven functional building blocks: identity, conversations, sharing, presence, relationships, reputation, and groups. As different social media activities are defined by the extent to which they focus on some or all of these blocks, we explain the implications that each block can have for how firms should engage with social media. To conclude, we present a number of recommendations regarding how firms should develop strategies for monitoring, understanding, and responding to different social media activities. 1. Welcome to the jungle: The social create, discuss, and modify user-generated con- tent. Given the tremendous exposure of social me- media ecology dia in the popular press today, it would seem that we are in the midst of an altogether new communica- Social media employ mobile and web-based tech- tion landscape. The New York Times recently hired a nologies to create highly interactive platforms social media editor (Nolan, 2009); the Catholic Press via which individuals and communities share, co- Association (2010) offers a webinar on how the E-mail addresses: church can use social media; and the Governor of [email protected] (J.H. Kietzmann) California, Arnold Schwarzenegger, is on Twitter [email protected] (K. Hermkens) with 1.8 million followers. Even Northwest Organic [email protected] (I.P. McCarthy) [email protected] (B.S. Silvestre) Valley brand milk cartons now display ‘find, friend, and follow us’ slogans. But unknown to many, this landscape of social media sites and services started time a musical instrument had been broken during forming more than a dozen years ago. For instance, the course of a flight. It was, however, probably the in 1997, the social network site Sixdegrees allowed first time that the owner of the instrument recorded users to create profiles, list their friends, and add a music video about the experience and posted it on friends-of-friends to their own lists (Boyd & Ellison, YouTube. The video, portraying United in a very 2008). Sound familiar? unfavorable light, went ‘viral’ and has been viewed There currently exists a rich and diverse ecology almost 9.5 million times (Carroll, 2009). Amongst of social media sites, which vary in terms of their other highlights, United Breaks Guitars was cited by scope and functionality. Some sites are for the Time.com as one of YouTube’s best videos, and even general masses, like Friendster, Hi5, and–—of discussed by Wolf Blitzer on television’s CNN Situa- course–—Facebook, which opened only 4 years tion Room. Such attention led to a brand and public after Sixdegrees closed its doors. Other sites, like relations crisis for United, as the story was cheered LinkedIn, are more focused professional networks; on by a global community of passengers who under- in fact, Facebook started out as a niche private stood all too well the frustrations of dealing with network for Harvard University students. Media airline service failures. United did not respond and, sharing sites, such as MySpace, YouTube, and Flickr, to this day, an Internet search of the term ‘United’ concentrate on shared videos and photos. And after returns Carroll’s damaging YouTube video link at the a slow start in the late 1990s, weblogs (blogs) have top of the results list. This high profile example become very popular, because they are easy to illustrates how ill-prepared firms can be in dealing create and to maintain. Their authors range from with social media conversations about them. As BBC everyday people to professional writers and celeb- Business Editor Tim Weber (2010) explains: ‘‘These rities. Today, the resulting ‘blogosphere’ of more days, one witty tweet, one clever blog post, one than 100 million blogs and their interconnections devastating video–—forwarded to hundreds of has become an important source of public opinion. friends at the click of a mouse–—can snowball and There are even search engines, like Technorati, that kill a product or damage a company’s share price.’’ are dedicated to searching blogs. Similarly, with the Although it is clear that–—forbetter or for worse–— help of social news and bookmarking sites like Reddit, social media is very powerful, many executives are Digg, and Delicious (formerly known as Del.icio.us), reluctant or unable to develop strategies and allo- users can rank sites by voting on the value of content. cate resources to engage effectively with social Most recently, the phenomenon of micro-blogging media. Consequently, firms regularly ignore or mis- focuses on offering real-time updates. Twitter has manage the opportunities and threats presented by been driving this development since it was founded in creative consumers (Berthon, Pitt, McCarthy, & 2006. Today, more than 145 million users send on Kates, 2007). One reason behind this ineptitude is average 90 million ‘tweets’ per day, each consisting a lack of understanding regarding what social media of 140 characters or less (Madway, 2010). These are are, and the various forms they can take (Kaplan & mostly short status updates of what users are doing, Haenlein, 2010). To help address this gap in knowl- where they are, how they are feeling, or links to other edge, we herein present and illustrate a honeycomb sites. In turn, Foursquare ties these real-time up- framework of seven social media building blocks. dates into location specific information by rewarding Utilized individually and together, these blocks can users for ‘checking in’ to real sites at any location help mangers make sense of the social media ecolo- worldwide, and for leaving their comments for others gy, and to understand their audience and their to view. engagement needs. In true social media fashion, With this rise in social media, it appears that the origins of this framework can be attributed to corporate communication has been democratized. a number of bloggers: principally, Gene Smith (2007) The power has been taken from those in marketing of the Atomiq.org, who developed and combined and public relations by the individuals and commu- ideas discussed by Matt Webb (2004) of intercon- nities that create, share, and consume blogs, nect.org; Stewart Butterfield (2003) of sylloge.com; tweets, Facebook entries, movies, pictures, and and Peter Morville (2004) of semanticstudios.com. so forth. Communication about brands happens, We have taken their ideas and advanced them in with or without permission of the firms in question. four ways, each of which forms a part of our article. It is now up to firms to decide if they want to get In Section 2, we explain how executives would serious about social media and participate in this use the framework to understand the functional communication, or continue to ignore it. Both have traits of different social media activities, and dis- a tremendous impact. cuss and illustrate the fundamental implications For instance, when United Airlines broke Dave that each block presents to firms as they seek to Carroll’s guitar in 2008, it likely was not the first fathom the engagement needs of their social media Figure 1. The honeycomb of social media audience. In Section 3, we explain how the frame- users in certain ways. For instance, Kaplan and work can be used to compare and contrast the Haenlein (2010) explain that the presentation functionalities and implications of different social of a user’s identity can often happen through media activities. Finally, in Section 4, we conclude the conscious or unconscious ‘self-disclosure’ of by presenting guidelines for how firms should devel- subjective information such as thoughts, feelings, op strategies for monitoring, understanding, and likes, and dislikes. Consequently, users and responding to different social media activities. social media sites have different discourse prefer- ences and aims. Many individuals who participate in online activities use their real names (e.g., Guy 2. The seven functional blocks of Kawasaki, a leading blogger and managing director social media of Garage Technology Ventures), while other influential social media mavens are known by their The framework we use (see Figure 1) is a honeycomb nicknames, or ‘handles’ (e.g., hummingbird604 of seven functional building blocks: identity, con- is Raul Pacheco, a blogger and educator on envi- versations, sharing, presence, relationships, repu- ronmental issues). tation, and groups. Each block allows us to unpack Of course, there are many different social media and examine (1) a specific facet of social media user platforms built around identity that require users to experience, and (2) its implications for firms. These set up profiles (e.g., Facebook). This has led to the building blocks are neither mutually exclusive, nor formation of secondary services like DandyID, which do they all have to be present in a social media allows users to store their online social identities in activity.